YOUR CORRESPONDENT, AMONG OTHERS RESIDENT HERE IN THE MIDWESTERN STATES, are rather frustrated about the persistence of cool weather and snowfall well into mid-April as I write this.

Witness where some snow as was discerned on grassy surfaces @ sunrise this morning here in the Minnwissippi is now melting as I put these comments down in the virtual canvas of the blogosphere. (In contrast, Duluth saw blizzard conditions galore, including some wicked whitecaps in Duluth Harbour lapping close to the Aerial Lift Bridge in its down position.)

Luckily, though, milder weather should make its return by Monday or thereabouts. Let's just hope things dry out seriously enough to get the lawn, garden and farm work started within measurable distance, even more so in the spring wheat regions of the Red River Valley as are likely to get so waterlogged, farmers are likely to see frustration and delays in getting the crop planted against a short time frame for growing. (Or so Motherdear, originally from that general area, tells me.)

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YOUR CORRESPONDENT, FOR ONE, IS INCLINED TO CONCUR WITH THE REMARKS OF DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL WANNABE SEN. BARAK OBAMA as have drawn considerable fire from her Democratic rival, Hillary Rodham-Clinton, and their GOP candidate-presumptive rival, John McCain (a/k/a The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang), suggesting that both established political parties have lost contact with the working classes and their needs.

As in creating various distractionary non-issues such as gun control and gay marriage to trick voters away from paying attention to their best interests in favour of misguided articles of faith using "feel-good" notions like "national unity" and "patriot love" as can be distilled down to simple, easily-understood bumper-sticker slogans.

Which, come to think of it, may have oh-so-subtle Producerist undertones throughout.

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AND SPEAKING OF THE TERRIBLE-TEMPERED MR. BANG, what with anecdotal evidence emerging of his potential for lapsing into Billingsgate without provocation or warning:

May I suggest that the public pay especially close que vive to McCain's campaign appearences for the likelihood of his suddenly going into "Macaca Moments"--as in:

• unprovoked, spontaneous use of one or more of the Seven Dirty Words or their variants;
• sudden mood changes or swings; and
• other misadventures characterised by erratic moods.

The which can easily be put onto YouTube and the like for all to see--and for which to further "swiftboat" The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang of Indecision 2008.

Which he deserves, come to think of it.

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PERHAPS IT MIGHT ALSO BE A GOOD TIME TO REMIND ALL OF YOU TO RMAIN ESPECIALLY WATCHFUL of attempts by the weird and unwholesome element to harrass or intimidate intending voters, especially in low-income, rural and National Minority communities as are prime targets of "caging" campaigns questioning the validity and celerity of voter-identity cards ... or campaigns warning the targeted against voting because of possible criminal action.

Voter intimidation and interfering with voter-registry campaigns are considered penal offences, with hate-crimes enhancements likely under certain circumstances.

If you hear of any such in your community, remember to freecall the Voter Protection Project of People For the American Way anytime on:

1-866-OUR-VOTE

And while you're @ it, contact law-enforcement agencies as well.

Even if you hear rumours or whispers of vote-supression campaigns afoot, be alert and vigilant. The weird and unwholesome will love to stop @ nothing to keep voter turnout down, and claim that such is necessary "for G-d and Country," or so the official patsy would go.

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SPOT THE COMMON THREAD HERE:

• Refugees from flooding-related disasters and recent notoriously destructive hurricanes living in caravans supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) pending availability of replacement permanent housing.
• Social workers with the Australian Government's Aboriginal Intervention Programme in the Northern Territory whose makeshift offices are converted freight containers.

Give up?

It's complaints of cancer aggravated by the use of formaldehyde in insulating material in the former and as wood-liner preservative in the latter.

Which have doubtless generated complaints about illness among such thus afflicted to the circumstances, and the relevant authorities taking a lax attitude of response, translating no doubt into frustration, bedlam and confusion as has raised whispers of legal action.

And considering where many of those resident in FEMA's caravans tend to be from the Lower Classes, Your Correspondent, for one, has to wonder if FEMA is (un)consciously (un)aware of the presence of formaldehyde in caravan insulation--perhaps looking for cheap and cheerful ways, aided and abetted by the forces of Neo-Conservatism ranking among the best and most loyal of droogs in His Fraudulency's Great Within, to kill off the poor, undereducated and easily-influenced short of "resettling" them in Occupied Iraq.

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THAT RATHER WHINY-SOUNDING SINGSONG MEME OF "RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION! RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION!!" against the so-called "Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" seems to only get more pathetic as new reports surface of Indecent Sexual Liberties with Minors @ the FLDS' ancestral compound (so to speak) on the Arizona-Utah border on top of such @ the Texas compound leading to the removal of some 420 girls from same after just one phone call to a sexual-abuse hotline in hushed tones.

In fact, the Colorado City compound saw a rather infamous raid in 1953 as exposed the world to the fact that polygamy--officially disavowed of by the mainstream Latter-Day Saints congregation since 1890--is still making its presence known.

And is being justified by a rather warped interpretation of Holy Writ.

And, come to think of it, is bringing to light a rather darkly interesting side of the FLDS as sounds like something out of radio drama shows like Inner Sanctum Mysteries, Escape or Suspense: The world of the "lost boys" of the FLDS, essentially chattel culled from the FLDS community and expected to go into what their faith taught them was an "evil and dangerous" world on their own to protect what amounts to the breeding rights of older husbands.

Numbering some 400, the vast majority thereof are essentially "dumped" upon Utah's Dixie to fend for themselves.

CNN has some insight into the phenomenon:

Gary Engels, an investigator for the state of Arizona, has seen many "lost boy" cases. The reasons for leaving are many. Sometimes, it's because parents are too strict. Other times, it's for minor reasons.

"They leave because they have been caught talking to a girl or if they have been caught out at one of these beer parties or just not obeying the rules," Engels says.

He adds, "How a father or a mother can suddenly take a child and kick them out and never speak with them again, that's just unbelievable."

[***]

About a half dozen "lost boys" filed suit against Jeffs and the FLDS, saying they were thrown out of the FLDS community to allow older men to have more wives. The suit was partially settled earlier this year, with an agreement for a $250,000 fund to be created for housing assistance, education help and other aid to boys who leave the FLDS.

Jeffs' trial is unrelated to that suit.

Franky, who was not part of the lawsuit, left the sect three years ago--just weeks after his father got kicked out of the sect. He decided to leave because he didn't want to suffer the same fate as his dad, growing up in the FLDS and then having his family "pulled away."

Franky left behind three mothers and about three dozen siblings. Two of his sisters are married to Jeffs. He's not allowed to contact any of his family and nervously agreed to speak with CNN. Members of the FLDS have been banned from speaking with outsiders.

"[Jeffs] would be very angry that I am talking to you," Franky says.

Quite simply, he says they're not supposed to talk "to you outside people."

Learning to cope is another thing altogether. When the boys leave their structured religion-filled lives in the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, they find themselves totally unprepared for society. Most have no money, no real education and nowhere to live.

Dozens of "lost boys" gather in homes like Robbie Holm's to blow off steam and drink.

"They're going to do what they feel is good to them," says Holm. "Drinking alcohol and drugs are one of those things they want to do."

Franky says he soaked up pot, ecstasy and cocaine to "cope with the outside world and deal with where and what it is."

"I couldn't have done it without the drugs," he says.

But it came with a price: He went to jail for drug possession.

"It's almost a natural consequence for them to get involved to some extent or another with alcohol or drugs," says Greg Hoole, a Salt Lake City-based attorney who represented the "lost boys" in the civil suit.

One group is trying to help the boys and young men adapt. St. George, Utah, just down the road from the FLDS headquarters, has become an epicenter for the lost boys. Next month, a home will become refuge for 10 "lost boys."

Franky and others who have left the sect have volunteered their time to paint, tile, and clean up the house and call it simply "the house off bluff."

Michelle Benward, a psychologist and activist for the lost boys, sees it as much more.

"It's really a transitional home. It's an opportunity for them to have a place to stay, food to eat, and a time to sort of adjust," she says. "We like to think of it as a bridge between the two communities."

As for Franky, he remains perplexed about the man he once knew as "prophet." He still admires Jeffs in some ways and comments that "he enlightened my view of how to perceive things."

"He figured out how to distill people's hearts into loving one another unconditionally."

Sometimes, he still longs for his old life. "I miss the society of it. Somebody that cares. Somebody that you know that you can go home and have a good plate of food, home-grown cooking sat in front of you."

That cozy home cooking may soon get replaced with a heap of gossip. Jeffs' trial is expected to put the highly secretive organization's beliefs and practices of faith, power, isolation and sex front and center.

"It will be very quiet out here all through the trial. I am sure they will be fasting and praying for his release," says Engels. "Most of them believe that God's going to step forward and free him anyway and punish us 'bad-doers.' "

Engels believes there will be celebration among the flock if Jeffs is freed. If he's convicted, Engels predicts, the FLDS will "go more underground and they will continue to scatter out into the world."